Holiday Merch Fundraising For Colleges

  • by Michael Wolaver, Founder/Captain of Magellan Promotions

Holiday College Fundraising Merch Pop-Ups

The holidays are a perfect opportunity for colleges to implement a branded merch pop up shop as a fundraising opportunity.  Pop up shops are a way to connect with your donors, allow them to show their affinity and buy uniquely curated products. It is a warm pair of cozy branded wool socks with a snow covered depiction of campus or a fuzzy embroidered blanket for them to sit next to their fireplace while they drink cocoa from their ceramic spirited mug. 

While the college is providing donors the opportunity to do their holiday shopping, they are simultaneously supporting the university through this fundraiser.  Like all campaigns, creating a successful fundraising pop up shop takes planning. To help in that process, below is a list of key considerations and recommendations.  

Store Timeline – Optimally, have the store open one to two weeks ahead of Thanksgiving and leave it open until the inventory runs out. Ensure to make buyers aware that after a certain date that delivery can’t be guaranteed ahead of Christmas. 

Product Selection – There are a few important parameters to consider on the merch.

  • High perceived value – Consider relatively inexpensive products that have a high perceived value. These items can include a blanket, socks or knit hat. 
  • Ease of mailing – Think about products that are lightweight and can fit into a poly-mailer rather than a box. This reduces the postage and packaging costs, thus minimizing the overall cost. Products can include wine charms and an outdoor flag.  
  • Unique – Products that the donor likely doesn’t already have and that features their collegiate affiliation are more likely to spur action.  Products can include a tea towel and ice cube mold with the college logo.  
  • Product turnaround – Production on products can range from 2 to 6 weeks. If working on a short timeline, make sure to consider products that can be produced quickly. Our team at Magellan is fully versed in finding options that can fit any timeline.    


Inventory the product – Select and have the branded merch on hand ahead of the campaign launch. This way the product can be mailed right away as orders come in. 

Artwork – This can be the key to creating success for the campaign as the artwork is what drives the emotional connection. Drive action through making the artwork unique to the holiday season and/or different from what is normally available. Also, if the pop up store is done each holiday season, have a product that is offered annually with unique artwork and market it as a collectible or limited edition.

Donation Amount – This can vary based on a number of factors, but consider offering the product to donors at least 100% more than the cost. Then consider not adding additional cost on the fulfillment and postage. 

Campaign Need – To drive additional support, ensure the campaign is centered around a need on campus.

Fulfillment – This can be either mailed from a university office or Magellan can manage the inventory and mailing of the products. 

Pop Up Store Platform – This can be built on your college’s website to funnel all donations through your site. Or, if needed, we can create a shop and help manage the donations.   

To get inspiration on holiday product options, view this showroom. 

If interested in learning more, contact us and we will discuss specifics to have a holiday store come to life!
Holiday

College Fundraising Merch Pop-Ups

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Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”